How to write informal letter in English

Letter writing is one of the very effective modes of communication. Letter can be :

1. Personal - to friends or relatives

2. Business - placing  and receiving order, complaints etc.

3. Official - to different government or public offices.

4. Invitations - formal and informal.

A letter is a written message that can be handwritten or printed on paper. It is usually sent to the recipient via mail or post in an envelope, although this is not a requirement as such. Any such message that is transferred via post is a letter, a written conversation between two parties.            

Each type of letter has its own particular form, but there are certain features common to all types, which we are going to discuss through this blog. These are :

1. The Heading

This consists of the writer's address and the date which should be written at the top left-hand corner of the letter. For example :

28 Godda

Jharkhand

07 October 2020

    Notes : 1. The heading may not be written in formal invitation.

                 2. The date may be written as October 07, 2020 or even as 07-10-2020.

2. The Date

Always write the data below the sender's address. You can choose any of the following ways of writing the data.

(i) 07 October, 2020

(ii) 7th October, 2020

(iii) October 7, 2020

Unless mentioned in the question, you should write the same date on which they are taking the examination.

3. Greeting or Salutation

The salutation should be written below the address and date after leaving the space of a line or so. The form of salutation will vary according to the type of letter you write.

A. Personal Letter

(a) To members of the family, the salutation will be :

      My dear Father, My dear Mother, My dear Sister, My dear Brother, etc.

      To uncles, aunts, cousins, etc., you may use either 'My dear...' or 'Dear...' depending upon 

       your intimacy with them.

(b) To friends, the salutation will be :

       Dear Mr.Sharma   (not very intimate)

       Dear Rohit               (intimate)

       My dear Mohan     (very intimate and affectionate)

(c) To strangers the salutation will be just formal. If they are men, it will be 'Dear sir', if women, it will be 'Dear Madam'.


B. Business Letter

In a business letter, we have a thing called 'Inside address' before we come to salutation. The inside address gives the name of the person, firm or organization written to. This is given immediately below the date after the gap of a line or so. This follows the salutation again some gap. The form of the salutation in a business letter is 'Dear sirs' if we write to a firm or organization. However, if we are writting to an individual- such as the manager or secretary of the firm or organization -the salutation is merely 'Dear Sir' or 'Dear Madam'.



4. The Body of the Letter or Contents

This is the main and the most useful part of the letter. This part should be written in a simple natural style. A familiar way should be adopted in personal letters but a formal style with great clarity must be used in all other letters. If the letter is long, the body may be divided into two or more paragraphs.

 A business or official letter must conform to the following requirement in regard to the body of the letter :

 1. It should be brief and to the point. It must give all the necessary information and no more.

2. The clarity is of utmost important. Avoid vague and uncertain language.

3. The style should be formal, correct and courteous.

4. If anything is enclosed with the letter - like a bio-data, a cheque or a postal order- the same must be mentioned in the body of the letter.


5. Leave-taking or Subscription

After the letter is complete, write the leave-taking phrase at the end and put your signature below it thus :

Yours sincerely

A.K Gupta

(A.k Gupta)

 please Notes  :

 1. No apostrophe is used in 'yours', either before or after the 's'.

2.  In personal letter, instead of 'Yours sincerely', you can say 'Yours very sincerely', 'Sincerely Yours', yours affectionately' (to relations), 'Your affectionate brother', 'Your loving son', etc. In official letters, the normal expression used is 'Yours faithfully' or sometimes 'Yours truly'. But while writing to teachers 'Yours obediently' is to be used.

3. Do not use an adverb before  a noun. e.g., 'Yours obediently son' is wrong. Write either 'Yours obediently' or 'Your obedient son'.


6. The Address on the Envelope or Superscription

The address should be written very clearly in this manner :

Shri K.P Mishra

New Market Road

Godda

Please Note : 

1. When you write a letter in an examination paper, don't write your real name or address. You may use a fictitious name or leave a bank space...........  .

2. Remember that the style of a personal letter is quite different from business, official or any other type of letters. These are intimate and long whereas the others are brief and to the point.

That's all about How to write letter in English. Hope you may understand it. For this type of Knowledge keep visiting on my blog. 

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